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The Dark Heart: The Wondrous Upheaval
COSG: The Dark Heart Chapter 10: The Wondrous Upheaval Episode Body The inside of the escape pod was tarnished, most of the lights had blown and all the loose debris and equipment had been thrown to the rear end of the container, but it was still sealed and intact. At the opposite end, in the central seat was Taylor, nearly lifelessly planted, fastened down to the chair as his arms hung limply off the edges, the visor of his helmet was cracked completely through, scraps of glass rested on his face. His gut slightly inflated and deflated with breath, the only sign he was still alive. His eyelids fluttered open as thoughts slowly began to race through his mind, where he was, what he had just endured, it didn’t seem real and pondered whether it was a dream or not. Nevertheless the distasteful reality began to set in as he glanced around the escape pod, it was real. His handles fumbled across his chest as he sought to disengage the seat harness. As he found it he unbuckled the device and laid still for another moment, staring at the cracked glass of the escape anterior window. It was dark, manipulated by the shattered glass, he could only make dark shapes, and what sounded like rain. He slowly rolled from his seat and scooted down the wall of the escape pod to its posterior hatch. He grasped the door hatch and yanked at it but it simply jolted in place, another attempt and the same result. Posturing up against the wall he raised his right leg upward, but the thought of the escape pods positioning, that he had to crawl down it, that his arms hung downward, and that all the debris had drifted to the back, didn’t cross his mind. He stomped downward on the hatch, once, twice. He could feel it moving and threw another stomp, but this time he broke through, and gravity did its job. As the hatch swung open the entire escape pod shifted, and before Taylor could react, his left foot gave out from under him and he plummeted out of the hatch. He caught the edge of hanging hatch with his outstretched right arm with a jerk, it felt like he nearly dislocated his shoulder. A grunt blurted from his vocal cords as he strained, hanging from the door, his heart was pounding and he could now see his surroundings. Green, luscious, abundant, green, everywhere, flowers of all different colors decorated the twisted massive foliage that encircled him, and looked up to the escape pod, it dangled, caught in the branches the canopy, Rain water trickled down from the trees above. With all of his strength, what he had regained, Taylor threw his left hand onto the hatch and attempted to pull himself back into the escape pod, but then he heard it. The hatch’s bolts began to pop and snap, and it dropped another inch as it the constraints broke down to the final bolt. Taylor felt his heart beat stop as he looked down, he couldn’t see forest floor beneath him, just what seemed like an view of branches and vegetation. He froze, dumbfounded on what to do and suddenly, the final bolt snapped and he plunged. Dropping through the lower canopy, the branches, trees, and herbage, painfully, broke impeded his fall. “Fuck!” he shouted out as the tree’s extensions lacerated him, “Shit! Mother of God!” he continued to fall, but not before smacking the back side of his shoulder against a thick branch of one of the trees, “Go to Hell!” The harrowing drop continued for several more seconds, before finally, Taylor broke through the canopy, smashing onto an outstretched branch of another tree and tumbling over it, bouncing off of the trunk and splashing into the thick, muddy forest floor. He didn’t even have the time to take in all the pain he was feeling before he noticed the ominous sounds of branches snapping and cracking, echoing through the canopy above him. He could hear it falling, crashing through but had no zest left in him to move, and abruptly, the escape pod smashed through the canopy and dove. He laid still, fully expecting life to be over but the pod, smashed down planting itself into the forest basin just feet away from Taylor’s head. Shocked he had survived, Taylor jettisoned out a deep shot of air from his lungs, a breath he had held in. Though relieved he wasn’t crushed between the ground and the pod, the pain of everything he had just gone through, set in. “I think my ass it broken.” he muttered to himself as he had a look of pure detachment, no emotion in his expression. His visor had now completely busted and shards of glass decorated and implanted themselves on his face. He hauled himself up to a seated position and took in the view, it was dark, no telling if it was night or day because light didn’t seem to breach this rainforest, the ground was soaked, and all around him he could hear the melodies of the forest. The rain bouncing across the foliage, the sound of hundreds of organisms echoing throughout the woods, he thought to himself, this must be Numia. He then glanced over at the pod impaled on the floor. In the following minutes he rummaged through the pod, grabbing whatever he could and discarding his tarnished hardsuit, he equipped himself with the survival gear inside the pod; a grey padded combat jacket and a ballistic vest. He brandished a mattock assault rifle, brushing the dust off of it and discharging the burnt out cartridge, the smoke lifted across his face as he gazed over the gun with a focused expression. He plucked several of the shards of glass from his face, a pinching pain reverberated across his mug and he flinched, adjusting to it. Taylor hoisted the gun up, his eyes sharp and aimed as he looked out into the rainforest, tucking his tongue into his teeth he stepped forward into the green abyss. Despite everything that had happened, his composure remained in one piece, he wasn’t about to give up, and he wasn’t about to wait at that escape pod for help, Taylor was determined to survive, and hopefully find anyone else that made it off the Aetherius as he marched off into the enigmatic wilderness. As he made his way through the alien jungle, taking notice of the platlife; odd colored venus fly trap-like plants, dangling orange and red vines, blue moss like overgrowth, and the twisted, massive thick trees that controlled the sights, he couldn’t help but take in the elaborate beauty, this was a sight he’d never see on Earth. Eventually, after what seemed like an hour, he began to detect the jungle’s density was steadily decreasing, and what seemed like an endless canopy of trees grew shorter and shorter before too long, patches of dark blue sky, speckled with hundreds of stars between black ominous storm clouds began to break through the treetops. Flashes of lightning danced across the pocketed views as the rain, now free to fall came down harder than it had deeper in the jungle. He was cautious as he treaded through the forest, careful not to make much sound, fearing what could be lurking on this unknown habitat. As he paced forward he could see an array of light in the darkness of the forest, the moonlight breaking through the canopy. It was almost like a beacon reaching out to him and he approached peering into the gap. Between the stormy clouds above Numia’s moon had emerged for just a moment, a bright, pale blue body hung in the sky. From Taylor’s view it appeared over twice the size of what Luna was to Earth. He strolled forward lowering his weapon as the sight drew him just beneath the hole. He leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree and gazed upward, in that moment he shed any worry, anxiety, or fear this ordeal had caused him, and became lost. A new world, something aside from Earth, a skyline he had never seen before. The sight and sounds forced him into taking just a moment to absorb it all in. Looking at the stars above he let out a short laugh, and smirked, with the heavens above him he spoke out, “There’s no one up above to me hear yell even if I tried, I’m on my own.” The thought of what was ahead didn’t scare him, in a crazy way, it encouraged him, he lifted his mattock back up and embarked forward once again. Despite the decrease in forestation, it seemed the jungle had no end in sight, and Taylor couldn’t help but wonder where he was going, or if he would even be lucky enough to find any other survivors. Just as these thoughts came to be, the bellowing sound of a distant POP echoed through the trees. Between the scattered openings in the treetops he could see a burning red light ascending in the air, discharging a tail of sparks as it flew higher, a flare. The sudden realization washed over him, “That has to be someone from the ship!” he thought to himself, and he bolted forward, shedding the caution that once kept him moving slowly. He raced through the jungle in the direction of the flare, it was at least a mile out, but he continued to move swiftly through the brush. Before long, he broke through into some opening beneath the rainforest canopy, the trees were spaced well apart yet conjoined across the roof, still sealing the sky from reaching down. Ahead, Taylor could hear the faint sound of voices, playing it cool he slowed to a trot and raised his mattock to eye level. As he approached the voices became clearer, multiple, at least 3 or 4, and then he made one out, the unmistakable irritable voice of Erinn, as well as several others, arguing. “Why don’t you save us all the trouble, especially myself, and go head and just put a bullet in my head.” Erinn’s voice ordered out aggressively, out of character for him, “It’s better than listening to you cunts go back in forth.” One of the other voices barked out, it was harsh, English-esq in its accent, not one Taylor recognized. “You shut your damn mouth before I put a bullet in it now!” “That’s what I’m asking you to do you dumb ass!” Erinn reiterated his initial command. Eliae’s voice now, quieter, calmer than Erik’s pleaded to his compatriot, “Get yourself killed I don’t care but don’t get us both killed!” Taylor picked up the pace slightly as he crossed through the underbrush and he slowly braced himself against the hunk of a tree, leaning out to look ahead. There sat one of the damaged escape pods from the Aetherius, and to Taylor’s anxious dismay, Erinn and Eliae were planted on their knees, hands on their heads with a man, armored to the teeth in a black combat hardsuit. His rifle was aimed directly between the two, and across from him, three more men in the same gear, one however without a helmet, instead a black cap was fitted on his head, clearly the leader. “What’s the word on their identity?” He asked the man next to him who was deep into his own omni-tool. Taylor noticed a 5th armored individual patrolling the clearing, just several meters away from him and the tree he hid behind. The guard looked to his leader, and shook his head, “Still working on it.” The 5th guard strolled closer to Taylor, who was beginning to realize he needed to act and quickly. Thoughts race through his mind, action movies and games made situations like this seem as if they should come easy, but they weren’t. With limited options, he shuffled around the vegetation near him, causing a muted commotion, drawing the attention of only the outermost soldier. The bickering between the others continued, and the outlying guard strolled closer to Taylor’s location. He waited for the armed individual to pass by, the darkness of jungle shrouded Taylor as he silently pressed backwards. The character now crossed Taylor’s line of sight, he waited a moment, building up the fortitude to do what he was about to have to do. The guard stopped, scanning the area and turning the his rifle’s light on. As he rotated his vision around the area, drawing closer to Taylor, the hidden survivor knew he had to act now. Pressing his feet into the terrain he built up a biotic charge and darted at his target, he smashed into him, wrapping his arms around him in an attempt to through the enemy to the ground. The soldier resisted however and the two struggled, dropping into the dirt as they tangled, the sounds of nature concealing the sounds of their conflict from the others. In the tussle the soldier reversed his position, rolling Taylor to the bottom and dropping a clean right fist directly onto his chin. A quick movement of his head saved Taylor from being separated from his senses but the shot still rocked his jaw. Sensing he had lost the upper hand, Taylor frantically searched for a way to get it back. The guard began throwing down haymakers, most of which Taylor dodged as the sight of the assailant’s rifle, just inches away stood out to him. Ferociously fending off the attacker with his right arm, he reached out for the rifle with his other, stretching but to no avail. They engaged back and forth, rolling in the mud until finally Taylor managed to trigger his biotics, swinging the gun across the face of the soldier and knocking him off of Taylor. As Taylor rose to his feet, quickly, he drew his mattock still slung on his back, rapidly taking aim as the soldier attempted to rebound, though his adrenaline and slowed his motor skills, the nerves kicked in. Despite this he didn’t hesitate, or think, survive was all that was on his mind, his vision narrowed on the rising enemy and instinctively he pulled the trigger. A single roar from the mattock bellowed out as the recoil jolted Taylor, the projectile ripped into the soldier’s chest, bouncing straight through his torso and implanting into the ground. Before he could react or even acknowledge what he had just done, the realization of the noise he created hit him. “Shots fired!” One of the other soldiers called out from the clearing as all 4 men went on alert. The leader gazed around noticing the 5th soldier was nowhere to be seen, “Jenkins! Report!” He called out for the other. Taylor braced against the tree once more, ready for another fight, “Fan out! We have hostiles in the area!” He turned back to Erinn and Eliae still with their hands on their heads but both in a state of confusion about what was going on. “You bastards! Who else was with you!” He grabbed Eliae by the collar of his shirt. “No one!” Eliae argued, “Besides him!” He added motioning towards the limp lifeless body of Connor who was lying at the edge of the damaged escape pod. “And be a little more gentle hombre! This shirt is expensive!” Taylor ignited his biotics once more, getting innovative this time he used his abilities to lift the dead soldier from the ground, hoisting his corpse in front of him, a bullet shield. He dashed out from the cover, left hand held up maintaining his meat shield and the mattock in the other. He rapidly pulsated his finger across the trigger, busting out shots from hip fire across the ground floor. One shot luckily blasted into the chest of one of the soldiers, knocking him backward as the others scattered to cover, Erinn and Eliae both hurriedly rolled back to the safety of the escape pod as bullets danced around the area. The soldiers opened fire, their shots battering the body of their deceased ally as Taylor continued his charge forward. Picking the outmost trooper he hurled his body shield into him, knocking the soldier down. Taylor battled rolled across dodging the fire from the others, and covered behind the escape pod. At his feet was the soldier, struggling to get the corpse off him, Taylor slung his mattock to the side, BANG, a single shot into the soldier’s neck killing him. “Three to go!” he spat out. The soldiers fired into the side of the escape pod, the shots breaking through the first wall as on the inside, Eliae and Erinn remained low to the bottom. The projectiles bounced around, ringing out above the two. “Why hasn’t one hit me yet!?” Erinn called out. Taylor ignited his biotic barrier and dashed from the cover, barreling towards the three attackers, he lined up his sight and peppered them, two shots goring the central soldier, with the other two diving from the oncoming fire. As he sprinted, Taylor leaped forward, his biotics booming across the muddy ground he shoulder tackled the soldier, throwing a knee into his gut before drawing back, whipping his own leg and throwing it forward. Full biotic kick, his shin connected directly into the soldier’s helmet and he could feel and the hear the cracking of the armor, and bones as the soldier dropped lifelessly to the ground. The officer, all that remained opened fire with his rifle as Taylor turned his attention to him. The shots bounced across his biotic barrier, feeling more like light punchings bouncing on his body, Taylor closed the distance. Pulling the trigger of his mattock only to be answered by the sound of clicking, thermal clip was dry. He casted the rifle at the leader who dodged it himself. A biotic blue aura swarmed across the last remaining enemy, he too was a biotic, and he and Taylor clinched. Locked in a dirty boxing match the two threw biotic powered punches between each other, but Taylor could feel his biotics starting to wind down. The leader was freshly engaged, and sensed it, he capitalized, throwing a biotic push into Taylor, who felt as if he had been hit by a car as he was cast into the trunk of a nearby tree. The knock dropped him to the ground, his back felt like it had been jumped on by a Krogan. He managed to raise to his hands and knees and with what energy he had left, casted a weak lance at the leader who brushed it aside, reloading his rifle and taking aim. “You go to hard kid.” He lectured as he prepared to kill Taylor, “I’d say next time pace yourself, but there’s no next time for you.” He aimed at Taylor, who couldn’t even think as he looked death in the face, he did what almost anyone does, froze in place with a stupid look on his face, closing his eyes as a single gunshot boomed out. He remained still, but felt nothing, and the sound of a thud in front of him opened his eyes. The officer had dropped down to his knees, dropping his gun to the ground as well, his mouth wide opened as he weakly gasped for air before falling face first to the dirt. A single gunshot hole resonated with smoke from his back. Taylor’s tunnel vision cleared up and behind the dead officer was Erinn, standing still with a revolved aimed up, its barrel smoking. He was slightly shaking in place stuttering out breathes, his nerves had him all in a bind after what he had just done. Relieved, Taylor exhaled his breath with a smirk and stood up to his feet, walking past his stunned savior, he patted Erinn on the head, “Thanks bud.” Eliae remained at the escape pod, catching his breath and adjusting to the chaos that had just happened, “Just in time, am I glad to see you!” He stood up and slapped Taylor on the shoulder, “Few more minutes and you would of been fishsticks.” Taylor joked. “Even in life or death situations you still got a sense of humor huh?” Eliae asked. The adrenaline was still pumping, but surprisingly, the nerves hadn’t stop Taylor, even with the fact that he not only killed someone for the first time, but killed four people. Survival was all that matter. “Can’t stop being me.” Erinn had now lowered his gun but still remained facing the body of the man he had just killed. “You okay Erinn?” Taylor asked with some concern. Erinn snapped out of it and turned to the others, looking at the revolver in his, it was long, bulky, heavy, a haymaker of a gun. He looked back to Taylor and Eliae. “Yeah… yeah I’m alive.” He mumbled out. “We all are, we’re lucky.” Taylor reassured them. Eliae pointed towards Connor’s body, “Well not all of us, good old Connor didn’t make it.” “Jesus, looks like he broke every bone in his body.” Taylor remarked slightly horrified at the sight of Connor’s battered corpse. “Oh yeah, dude was all over the place, panicking, wouldn’t listen when I told him to buckle up.” Eliae revealed, with no sorrow in his voice, “He was an ass anyways.” Taylor shrugged, “Cold but whatever.” He then looked at the dead soldiers, all in black armor, military like, but with no logos or anything to identify them by. “Who are these cucks?” “Mercenaries? Who knows, they obviously don’t like us.” Eliae added as he picked up one of the rifles cast along the forest floor. Taylor leaned down, looking at the body of one, the armor was covert, well designed, each soldier was outfitted with the same gear. “Too uninformed to be mercs, we’re dealing with something else, but these are the guys that shot us down that much is certain.” “This is, this doesn’t make sense.” Erinn cracked out, “Who would target us out here, what is all this about??” “No telling.” Taylor calmly answered, “Regardless, we can’t linger, they’ll find us. We need to find the others.” Eliae was doubting that Taylor’s idea was possible, “This planet is huge, who knows where they crashed, we got no hope, it’s just a wild goose chase.” Erinn had stepped towards the escape pod, “Not entirely true.” He countered as he began digging around inside of the escape pod. “Most of these have tracking devices.” He pulled out a piece of equipment from the pod’s wiring, a small PDA, “Yep, here it is, if I can get this on.” “I wish I had known that.” Taylor commented, “I would of taken the one out of mine.” The device clicked on and Erinn smiled, “Got it, might take a second to power on buuut” the PDA lit up, “There it is, got four indicators, we’re in business boys.” “Let’s get moving then.” Taylor encouraged with a grin, “Lead the way Erinn. Watch out for wildlife, this place is...sticky..” Erinn rolled his eyes as he looked to the PDA and then to the dark jungle, “Fantastic, this is just how I wanted to spend today.” Taylor joked more, poking fun at Eliae now, “It’s okay, if anything comes after us, well leave Eliae behind to feed them.” “Hey!” the Drell yelled out as the three headed deeper into the dark jungle, the rain still pouring down. The three continued through the depths of the jungle for hours, the density of the rainforest continued and the three couldn’t help but wonder if the entire world was just one big jungle. But eventually it began to clear, light crept through the openings and in between the trees, the sun was rising, the rain began to slow and they pushed on. Ahead Taylor could see more light, glaring light peaking through the trees ahead, he looked back towards the others, “We got daylight ahead! Come on!” He rushed forward, excited to see the sunrise on a new planet. “The fuck is so good about the sun? It’s hot?” Erinn restlessly asked Eliae as the two followed behind Taylor. Taylor reached the break in the tree, and found a sight to behold, like nothing he had ever seen. He stood on a cliff side now, the jungle ended but ahead of him it stretched for as far as the eye could see, a bright pink sun rose on the horizon tinting the entire sky as the former rain clouds now broke. The tree tops of the rainforest were vibrant and colorful, abundant in green with speckles of red, pink, orange, blue, and purple trees branching out above the others. Flocks of bird like creatures flew in the distance and the sight of everything had Taylor in awe as goofy smile radiated across his face. “Wow.” Eliae muttered in shock as well, “It’s beautiful.” The sight barely phased Erinn, “Beautiful isn’t being stranded on a planet and being hunted by soldiers.” With a glance back at his distressed friend Taylor spoke, “You gotta take the good with the bad man.” He knelt down and ran his hand through the soil, it was soft, he hadn’t notice in the dark but it had a midnight purple like tint to it, “Yeah we’re stranded, but we’re alive, and this, call me crazy but this, I’ve dreamed of this.” He felt the hair on his arms raise, “The carpet has been ripped out from my feet, all the furniture has been turned upside down. But we got to make the most out of this, we have to survive. I always heard, to dissect is to broaden the adventure, and enrich one’s tenure. This is an adventure, so don’t blunt the surgeon’s knife, we have to make the most out of this.” He fiddled with the dirt in his hand, “But how sweet the soil.” He then looked to the rising pink sun, “How wondrous the upheaval.” Standing back to his feet he smiled as he stared into the distance, “We have a whole world to explore and man there is so much to explore, it’s time to embark….” Appearances Characters *Taylor McClellan *Eliae Aemon *Erinn Winters *Connor Clark† Factions *Exodus Dominion Locations *Numia Ships *MSV Aetherius (Mentioned) Weapons *Mattock *Sidewinder Category:WolfOfTheEast Category:COSG Category:Articles by WolfOfTheEast Category:Chronicles of a Silent Galaxy Category:Stories Category:Chapters